Amir Khan

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Amir Khan suffered a knockout every bit as brutal as the first one of his career here on Saturday night when Saul “Canelo” Álvarez threaded a chilling right hand on to his briefly exposed jaw in the sixth round to leave the Briton senseless on the canvas for a couple of worrying minutes.

The Amir Khan story, which properly began in Athens 12 years ago, is coming towards the final few chapters and they could be gloriously uplifting or there may be a few blood-spattered pages at the end.

Virgil Hunter has said Amir Khan can be boxing’s “new No1” if he defies all predictions and beats Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez here on Saturday night – but the Californian trainer admitted: “If he loses focus, it could be over in a blink.”

From his palatial suite on the 60th floor of the Mandalay Bay, Amir Khan can see his own face half a mile away, blown up to Hollywood proportions at the other great boxing casino in this town, the MGM Grand. He likes the view. Who wouldn’t?

Amir Khan has claimed Eddie Hearn offered him £10m to fight Kell Brook, before cutting that figure significantly during negotiations. Khan will instead challenge the middl​eweight champion Saúl Álvarez in the defining fight of his career.

We already knew fighters are not like the rest of us. Professional boxers require at minimum a rare courage to enter the prize ring, society’s only venue where a man can be killed but not legally murdered, for a most public accounting of their manhood.

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Amir Khan suffered a knockout every bit as brutal as the first one of his career here on Saturday night when Saul “Canelo” Álvarez threaded a chilling right hand on to his briefly exposed jaw in the sixth round to leave the Briton senseless on the canvas for a couple of worrying minutes.

The Amir Khan story, which properly began in Athens 12 years ago, is coming towards the final few chapters and they could be gloriously uplifting or there may be a few blood-spattered pages at the end.